Physician Alignment Crucial in Cardio, Ortho Care

Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan has built a cardiovascular center of excellence. Physicians there collaborate with nurses to implement hospital processes and sets goals. And physician champions are named to help oversee quality goals and needs.

Whether it's in cardiovascular service or orthopedics care, healthcare leaders have no choice but to align their physicians with the day-to-day fabric of running their hospitals if they want to succeed. And they do want to succeed. Both are crucial growth areas for hospitals.

In fact, the heart and vascular and orthopedics service lines are among the top service lines expected to have strategic significance over the next two to five years, according to a HealthLeaders Media Intelligence report [PDF]. And what's the biggest challenge to achieve service line success overall? An estimated 61% of leaders say that physician alignment is number one, the report states.

A primer on putting together a successful physician alignment strategy came into focus for me earlier this week when I was at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, for a Health Leaders Media LIVE event on cardiovascular leadership.

Beaumont has built a cardiovascular center of excellence, on the bedrock of physician and administrator collaboration. Beaumont's panelists at our event, including two physicians in white coats who rushed in from the OR, focused on a team-theme: Physician-Led. Nurse-Partnered.